Well, I don’t usually post cover art in single-book doses, but I happened to pick up a nice piece at The Reading Place in Charlotte, MI, today, and I simply couldn’t resist...

At left is a copy of Have Space Suit—Will Travel published by Atheneum, presumably in the mid-1990s. The packaging is a bit of a puzzle, really: the only copyright inside is the original 1958, but while the lettering of the title suggested a rather recent printing, the lack of barcode anywhere on the piece almost made me think pre-1980s. A closer look at Freas’s signature, however, clearly says ’94, so it’s 10 or 15 years newer than I thought.Is this illustration as scrupulous to the text as, say, a Darrell K. Sweet or an Ed Emshwiller? No—Kip looks older than 18, the Mother Thing is not serene and enigmatic enough (no one can beat Sweet's interpretation!), and Peewee appears a noticeable number of years past 11... Still it is colorful and lovely in its own way, and it is a Freas, so I am glad to add it to my collection. I hope you may enjoy it, too.Rafeeq